Werewolf Skin (5 page)

“I—I heard animal howls from inside their house!” I blurted out. “And I saw strange footprints going up to the bedroom
window at the side.”

Uncle Colin nodded calmly. He took a long sip of coffee. “The footprints were
probably from their dogs,” he said, glancing at Aunt Marta.

“Dogs?” I cried.

They both nodded. “They have two huge German shepherds,” my aunt explained.
“Mean as they come.”

“And as big as wolves,” Uncle Colin added, shaking his head. He reached for a
slice of toast and began to butter it.

I sighed. I felt a little better.

Two German shepherds. That explained the howls and the footprints in the wet
grass.

“Are you ready for school?” Aunt Marta asked. “Hannah will be here any
minute.”

“I’m almost ready,” I replied. I gulped down a glass of orange juice. “When I
was in the woods last night…” I started.

They both stared at me.

“I saw some animals that got ripped up. I mean, killed.”

Uncle Colin nodded. “The woods are dangerous at night,” he said softly.

“We really don’t want you out there at night, Alex,” Aunt Marta said. She
pulled a piece of lint off the shoulder of my T-shirt. Then she tenderly brushed my hair back with her hand. “Promise us you won’t go again.”

“Promise,” I murmured.

“And promise that you’ll stay away from the Marlings,” my uncle added.

Before I could reply, the doorbell rang. Hannah came into the kitchen,
weighted down under a bulging backpack. “Ready?” she asked.

I nodded and shoved my chair back from the table. “Yeah. I guess I’m ready,”
I told her. “This is so weird. Going to someone else’s school.”

“You’ll like my teacher, Mr. Shein,” Hannah replied. “He’s very interesting.
And he’s really nice.”

I grabbed my backpack and my jacket. We said good-bye to my aunt and uncle
and headed out the front door.

I glanced at the Marlings’ house as we made our way to the street. The
bedroom window at the side had been closed, I saw. The house was dark as always.

“Did you find your camera?” Hannah asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. But it wasn’t easy.” I told her about my scary adventures.

She
tsk-tsked.
“I warned you, Alex,” she said. “You wouldn’t catch
me
in the woods after dark.”

A yellow school bus rumbled past. Some kids in the bus called out the window
to Hannah. She waved back to them.

The morning sun still floated low in the sky. A silvery frost clung to the
lawns. The air felt crisp and cold.

“One more block to school,” Hannah said. “Are you nervous?”

I didn’t answer. I was thinking about the Marlings. I told Hannah about the
howls I’d heard inside their house. “Uncle Colin says they have two German
shepherds. Really big and really mean,” I told her.

“No, they don’t,” Hannah replied sharply.

I stopped walking. “Excuse me?” I cried.

“The Marlings don’t have any dogs,” she repeated. “I’ve lived here as long as
they have, and I’ve never seen them.”

“Then why did my uncle tell me that?” I demanded.

“So you won’t be scared,” Hannah replied.

“I—I don’t understand,” I stammered. “If the Marlings don’t have dogs, what
made those weird footprints outside their window?”

Hannah shook her head. Her olive-green eyes locked onto mine. “Alex, don’t
you get it?” she cried. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

“Figured
what
out?” I asked.

“The Marlings are werewolves!” Hannah declared.

Why is everyone in Wolf Creek
obsessed
with werewolves? I wondered.

I laughed at Hannah and teased her the rest of the walk to school. I mean,
how could anyone actually believe in werewolves today?

“You’re only trying to scare me,” I told her. “But I don’t scare easily—remember? I saw one of the German shepherds. It was howling in the Marlings’
window.”

Hannah shrugged. “Believe what you want to believe,” she murmured.

“Don’t try to scare me with werewolves anymore,” I told her.

But I had a surprise when we arrived at school. Even Mr. Shein, the
sixth-grade teacher, wanted to talk about werewolves all morning!

He was about forty, short, and chubby, with thinning brown hair and thick
black eyeglasses perched on his round pink face. He wore a yellow sweater that
made him resemble a ripe pear.

But Hannah was right. He was very nice. Very friendly. He welcomed me eagerly
and introduced me to the other sixth graders, and really made me feel at home.

He assigned me a seat near the door in back. Hannah sat in the front row.

I spotted Sean and Arjun near the windows on the other side of the classroom.
They nodded, but didn’t say hi or anything.

They both looked rumpled and kind of tired. Their baggy clothes were very
wrinkled. Their hair was wild. They look as if they’d been up all night, I
thought.

Weird thought…

After taking attendance and making a few announcements, Mr. Shein sat on the
edge of his desk. His eyes traveled around the room. He waited for us to settle
down.

“Does anyone know what the study of lycanthropy is?” he asked. Behind his
glasses, his dark eyes glowed.

I had never heard the word. But to my surprise, several hands shot up. He
called on Arjun.

“It’s about people changing into wolves,” Arjun said.

“Werewolves!” Sean exclaimed.

Mr. Shein nodded. “Yes. Werewolves,” he repeated. “That’s what lycanthropy is
the study of.” He cleared his throat. “Since Halloween comes later this week, I thought we might spend some time discussing lycanthropy.”

“There is going to be a full moon on Halloween night this year!” a tall,
athletic-looking boy interrupted.

“Yes, there is,” Mr. Shein agreed. “Many people believe a full moon is needed
to bring the werewolf to life—but they are wrong. Although a werewolf’s powers
do
grow stronger as the moon grows fuller.”

Crossing his legs, he leaned back and began to talk. He explained how the
werewolf legends began over two hundred years ago in Europe. A normal person,
bitten by a werewolf, becomes a werewolf himself when moonlight shines on him.

“It is a curse that cannot be removed,” Mr. Shein said, speaking in a low,
steady voice. Trying to sound spooky. “No matter how much he tries to live a
normal life, a man inflicted with the curse turns into a wolf under the light of
the moon.”

“Girls too?” Hannah asked.

Some kids giggled.

“Yes. Girls too,” the teacher answered seriously.

“The werewolf must rage and howl,” Mr. Shein continued. “And prowl the woods
or forest in search of victims.”

“Cool!” a red-haired boy in front of me muttered.

Everyone laughed.

“At daybreak, the werewolves must shed their wolf skin,” the teacher
explained. “They return to human form. They must hide their wolf skin until the
next night. They must hide the skin in a safe place. Because if someone takes
the werewolf’s skin and burns it… the werewolf will die.”

“Cool!” the red-haired boy repeated.

More laughter. Kids started talking excitedly.

It took a while for Mr. Shein to quiet everyone. He jumped to his feet,
pulled down his yellow sweater, and paced in front of the chalkboard.

“Does anyone in this class believe that werewolves really exist?” he asked.

I snickered. I didn’t think any kids would raise their hands.

But to my surprise,
every single hand in the room
shot up.

“You
all
believe in werewolves!” Mr. Shein declared.

“Yes, we do,” I heard Arjun murmur softly.

“Yes, we do,” Sean repeated.

I turned and realized they were both staring hard at me.

I felt a sudden chill. What is their problem? I wondered. Why are they acting
so weird?

After school, Sean and Arjun came up to me at the back of the classroom.
Outside the room, lockers slammed. The tile walls echoed with shouts and
laughter.

The two guys studied me solemnly. “What’s up?” I greeted them, zipping my
backpack.

Mr. Shein waved and walked out, carrying a bulging briefcase. The three of us
were alone in the room.

“How’s it going?” Sean asked.

“Is it weird being in a new school?” Arjun said.

“Yeah. Kind of,” I told them. “Especially since I know I’m only here for a
few weeks.”

“You’re lucky!” Arjun joked. “Sean and I are stuck here.”

“Wolf Creek isn’t so bad,” I said. I swung the backpack onto my shoulder.

The two boys stared at me intently. They didn’t say anything. Sean shoved his
hands into his baggy jeans pockets. Arjun fiddled with a silver ring on his little finger.

Finally, Sean broke the silence. “You don’t believe in werewolves,” he said
softly.

“Huh? Well…” I hesitated.

“You didn’t raise your hand,” Arjun added. “Everyone else did.”

“Yeah. I know,” I replied. “I really don’t believe in them. I mean, come on,
guys. It’s practically the twenty-first century. See a lot of guys with fur on
their faces walking around the streets? I don’t think so!”

I meant it to be funny. But they didn’t laugh. They kept staring at me with
their solemn faces.

“Werewolves exist,” Arjun said softly. “We can prove it to you.”

“For sure,” I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes. “The Easter Bunny
exists too. I saw him riding a bus back home in Cleveland.”

“We can prove it to you, Alex,” Arjun insisted. “We can show you a werewolf.”

“A real one,” Sean added.

“No, thanks,” I said. “I really—”

“You can take pictures of it,” Arjun interrupted.

“Yeah. You can take a whole roll!” his friend cried.

That made me stop and think. I remembered the photo contest I planned to
enter. I needed a Halloween photo—a really good Halloween photo—for the
contest.

They moved closer, surrounding me, forcing me to back up until I bumped into
the windowsill.

“Want to see a real werewolf, Alex?” Sean demanded.

“Want to take photos of a real werewolf?” Arjun asked.

They stared hard at me, challenging me.

“What do I have to do?” I asked.

Aunt Marta laughed. “Hannah—you look
dreadful
!” she cried, pressing
her hands against her cheeks.

“Thank you!” Hannah took a low bow. “Thank you!”

After dinner, Hannah had come over to show off her Halloween costume. She
changed her mind about dressing as a pirate. The costume she chose instead was
hard to describe. She had taken a lot of old clothes, torn them all up, and sewn
them back together.

Her baggy pants had one brown leg and one green leg. And they had checkered
patches at the knees. She wore a ragged shirt of yellow, blue, red—every color
you can imagine. An even more colorful jacket over the shirt. And a floppy rag
hat that kept falling over her face.

“What are you supposed to be?” I asked. “A junkyard?”

She didn’t laugh. “I’m a rag doll,” she replied. “Don’t you get it?” She
tugged at the jacket. “Rags?”

Aunt Marta and Uncle Colin both laughed. I was happy to see them enjoying
themselves. They had both seemed tired and low at dinner. They had barely spoken
to me.

“There used to be a song about a rag doll,” Aunt Marta said. “Remember it,
Colin?”

My uncle shook his head. “I don’t remember anything anymore,” he replied.
“I’m lucky if I remember to get up in the morning!”

“Oh, give me a break, Colin!” Aunt Marta scolded. She gave him a playful
shove. She began singing a song about a rag doll.

Hannah did a silly dance, twirling her hands above her head. One of her
jacket sleeves fell off, and we all laughed.

“Where’s your costume, Alex?” my aunt demanded. “Go put it on. Come on. Let’s
have a preview.”

“I—I haven’t put one together yet,” I stammered.

“Well, let’s get some old clothes and make you a costume tonight!” Aunt Marta
insisted.

“No. I… need to think about it,” I told her.

I didn’t have my mind on costumes. I kept glancing out the front window at
the darkening sky. Thinking about what I planned to do later.

I planned to meet Sean and Arjun in the woods by the creek. At school, they
told me to take my camera and meet them there.

They said that the werewolf comes to that spot every night when the moon is
at the highest point in the sky. “It howls up at the moon,” Arjun said in an
excited whisper. “And then it lowers its head and laps up water from the creek.”

“Wait till you see it!” Sean exclaimed. “It’s a man and a wolf at the same
time. He’s half-human, half-animal.”

I narrowed my eyes at the two of them. I tried to decide if they were goofing
or not. Their expressions were so serious—and so excited—I decided they were
telling the truth.

Was it possible? Did werewolves really exist?

I pictured the howling creature in the Marlings’ window. And I pictured the
two animals in the woods, ripped to pieces.

By a werewolf?

The back of my neck tingled. I’d never believed in werewolves. But I’d seldom
been out of the city.

Here in this small town surrounded by woods, they began to seem real.

“Will you meet us at midnight?” Sean asked.

I didn’t want to return to the woods at night. Not after what I’d seen there.

But I didn’t want them to know I was afraid.

And I really needed a great photo to win the contest. A photo of a werewolf
would definitely win! What else could come close?

So I agreed to sneak out of the house and meet Sean and Arjun at midnight in
the woods. But now, as it grew later, I began to feel really nervous about it.

As I glanced out at the darkness beyond the window, I had a heavy feeling in
the pit of my stomach. And my hands were suddenly cold and clammy.